Sunday, August 14, 2016

Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega (8/13/2016)

This match was ridiculous in all the best ways possible. I'm not a fan of Kenny Omega and although some of his silly histrionics pop up, I thought this was easily his best performance and his selling was, for the most part, top-notch. I could nitpick a few of his bonehead decisions like hitting the fisherman buster onto the injured knee, but he did a lot to balance that and show the effects of Naito's impeccable legwork. The high drama surrounding the One-Winged Angel played out really well and Omega did some small things that I appreciated, like actually trying to protect himself against the elbow shots and hitting that knee counter to the kneebreaker attempt. Naito was so good here, being the unbearable thorn in Omega's side as he attacks the leg at any given opportunity. His facials are always great and you gotta love that shit-eating grin during the final slap battle. I wish I had stayed spoiler-free heading into this but even knowing the end result didn't affect my enjoyment of that finishing stretch, which was absolutely nuts and beautifully overkill. Fun fun fun! 

No comments:

Post a Comment